Tough fishing today, but finally found 'em, Ky Lake N

With a strong North and East ( lots of East) wind today and falling water, fishing started out tough for me. Tried deep water early, only managed three fish, all barely 10 in. Saw lots of folks fishing brush, but most of the brushpiles I scanned this morning were not holding fish, as far as I could tell. Tons of fish were suspended in 21- 25 FOW. Tried them, but couldn't get a bite. As the wind picked up mid morning, and the sun was shining, I moved to the shallows. Caught 9 crappie, some of them not much bigger than my minnows. 2 decent blacks little better than a lb. each. Turned them all loose. The wind laid enough that I could go back to deep water by 2:00pm. Couldn't catch a thing on the drops and ledges, so I tried the suspended fish again. Spiderrigging with tube jigs tipped with minnows. Also tried roadrunners and even plain minnows...couldn't get a hit. Finally I changed to 1/8 oz hair jigs, lime green with red or white heads (Bill Gant jigs made famous by his brother, Roger Gant, at Pickwick.) Tipped them with a minnow. Had my first bite at 17 ft (24 FOW)...then another....then another. Ended up catching 33 fish this afternoon. Many of them were 9 and 10 inches. Kept 7 that went from 12 to 15 inches. Most of the fish I caught were white, but 3 of the 7 that I kept were nice blacks, all female.

Seems like they're scattered out everywhere now but I found them in deeper water yesterday as well.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...0327011525.jpg

Nice report! I need to learn to stick with it like you did. I too often get frustrated and head to the house too early, I know you definately can't catch them at the house. It's amazing how things can turn around that quick!

The hardest thing for me when it gets tough is to keep trying different baits! Kudos for you keepin on it. Sounds like it paid off!

For some reason, they really liked those hair jigs this afternoon. I tried a couple of plastics in about the same colors and never got a bite. The hair jigs are REALLY brightly colored, even more than the best "glow" plastics I can find....and though they are called 1/8 oz, the heads on them are much bigger than the regular 1/8 oz heads I use. I think it was the fact that these jigs presented a larger target for those deep fish in colors that really worked in the heavily stained water. I've had success in tournaments with the same setup and it just seemed to be what they wanted today.....also..they HAD to be tipped with a minnow. That's just the way it is sometimes. And I will add this: I believe the majority of fish are still suspended in the deep water. As long as the water keeps falling, I look for most of them to remain there. They may come up some in the water column if the sun keeps shining (which may or may not happen depending on which weather report you look at). I wouldn't be surprised if suspended crappie could be caught at the mouths of most of the creeks just off the main lake in the next two days at depths of 12-14 ft. It will definitely be worth a try.

The weather should get warmer and more mild this weekend.

10 Day Weather Forecast for Murray, KY (42071) - weather.com

Very good info...thanks....what water temps are you getting in the open and in the coves? I have been watching on murray state web site..currently showing about 54, as high as 57 a few days ago, but wondering the difference with areas like jonathan creek or malcolm and some of the lbl bays like sugar, higgins...


Hope the weather forecasts are right.

Jason

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Originally Posted by fisher_i_am

Very good info...thanks....what water temps are you getting in the open and in the coves? I have been watching on murray state web site..currently showing about 54, as high as 57 a few days ago, but wondering the difference with areas like jonathan creek or malcolm and some of the lbl bays like sugar, higgins...


Hope the weather forecasts are right.

Jason

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I personally was get'n 49ish temps in Big Bear Yesterday. This water has cooled between 6 & 8 degrees since last Fri. Last Fri. we fished 56 degree water.

getum pin pointed buddy seya friday

Yesterday, the open water temps I was getting at the mouth of Jonathan Creek was around 51-52 degrees. That was down a bit from what it was last week. However, yesterday I got readings in shallow water (7-9 ft) in the upper end of Jonathan around 49-50 degrees. Typically, shallow water temps usually run a little warmer than deep water, but we haven't had much sun over the last few days until yesterday afternoon.

A hair jig is hard to beat when the fishing is slow. Thanks for the good infoHands Clapping

That shallow water will warm faster......but it also cools faster. Expecially if you get a little wind blowing back in a bay and blowing the top layer of cold water after a cold night to the back of the bay. WE NEED LOTS OF SUN !!!

I was near Cypress creek last week and fishing was tough. I'm hoping to get back down that way about the 8th of April to try it again. I hope by then things have gotten stable and the water has warmed up a bit. I'm ready for better weather, they're calling for snow showers here tonite.